Meantime
by LochNessie17
Summary: Detective Lopez has been working her way up the professional ladder for quite some time now in hopes of providing a comfortable lifestyle for her and her wife without ever truly considering the repercussions of putting things off until later, but just when her career starts taking a toll on her marriage, something happens to remind her just how finite time truly is. One-Shot.


"Can't we please just take, like, two minutes to finish talking about this?" Brittany asked as she tailed Santana down the hallway toward their bedroom.

"Look, Britt. I'm sorry, but I don't really have time to deal with this right now. Puck's supposed to be here any minute to pick me up," Santana replied as she retrieved a pair of socks out of the top drawer of their dresser and sat down on the edge of the bed so she could start putting on her work shoes while Brittany just stood there just outside the doorway, timidly rubbing a hand up and down her arm to try to calm the anxiety growing within her chest.

"I know, but you know how much I hate leaving arguments unresolved. I can't just package my thoughts and feelings away like you do."

Santana let out a frustrated sigh as she continued tying her shoe laces, "I understand that, Brittany, but there's not much I can do to help that right now." Pushing herself back up off the bed, she brushed passed the blonde to make her way into the living room so she could check to see if her partner was there yet.

Peeking out their living room window, she found one of the station's unmarked police cars pulling into the driveway and turned to look at Brittany standing over on the other side of the room, "I've got to go. We'll talk about this tomorrow morning. I promise." Just as she reached the front door, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Spinning around, she found Brittany standing there with one of her coats.

"Here, take this with you. It's supposed to get cold tonight."

"Yeah, uh, thanks. Almost forgot," Santana replied as she gently grabbed the article of clothing and rushed out the door, too caught up in the thoughts churning around in her head to hear the faintly whispered, "I love you," from the blonde as she made over to the squad car.

* * *

><p>As soon as the passenger door was shut and her seatbelt was in place, Santana huffed out a breath of air in an attempt to clear her head so she could get into her work mentality.<p>

Looking over at his partner through the aviators perched on his nose, Detective Puckerman asked, "Rough day?"

"Yeah, I guess you could put it that way. Britt and I got into a little bit of a disagreement earlier, and we didn't exactly have enough time to resolve the issue before you got here," she replied as she watched him pull out of her driveway and start driving down the street.

"That sucks. Wanna talk about it?"

Without looking away from the road in front of them, she answered, "I don't know. I guess it's just that I've been putting in a lot of hours lately, and she's been worried about me working as much as I have to get that promotion when, according to her, we don't really need it." Letting out a sigh, she added, "I mean, it's like she doesn't even realize that I'm doing this for us so that we can live a little more comfortably."

"Lopez, you know that's not what's important to her, especially since you two are already living well enough as it is."

"Whatever, it's not like you even know what you're talking about anyways."

"Fine, don't listen to me. I'm just trying to help. I mean, you aren't the only one in this car who has practically known her your whole life, but what would I know, right?" he shot back.

The woman let out a groan as she leaned forward to bury her face in her hands, "I know, I know. Sorry. I've just had a lot on my plate lately, and now it's getting to be a little much."

"Then, maybe there's some truth to what she was trying to tell you. Plus, do you really think a promotion is going to help you be able to stay at home more? If anything, they'll be giving you even more hours," Puck said as he pulled in front of one of the gas tanks at the local Stop-And-Go. "Anyways, I'm going top off real quick. How about you go grab us a couple of coffees so we can somehow manage to stay awake tonight? I don't know about you, but I got absolutely no sleep last night," he said with a suggestive wag of his brow as he reached into his back pocket to fish out his wallet so he could grab a five dollar bill to cover his half of the purchase.

The Latina just rolled her eyes in response, muttering a comment under her breath about him being a pig before snatching up the cash and opening the door to exit the vehicle.

She hadn't gotten too far, however, when she heard Puck get up out of the car to add, "Oh, and get me a pack of those little white powdered donuts while you're at it. I love those things!"

"You're such a cliché, Puckerman," Santana joked with a loud laugh as she turned to walk over to the entrance of the mini-mart.

* * *

><p>Santana was headed to get their coffees after grabbing Detective Puckerman's donuts when she noticed that she was walking down the small candy isle. Stopping in her tracks, she turned to the side and scanned through the store's selection until she found the yellow box she had been looking for. Picking it up, she stared down at the DOTS logo. The more she looked at it, the more she felt ashamed at how she had left her and Brittany's last conversation.<p>

The brunette was still completely caught up in her guilty thoughts when she noticed something move out of the corner of her eye. Glancing over, she noticed a little girl standing up on her tip toes in a diligent attempt to reach a bag of Skittles.

Switching the package of DOTS over to the hand that was holding the donuts, Santana reached over and grabbed a bag, handing it over to the little girl.

"Thanks, Miss."

"No problem," Santana said, giving her a little smile. She was about to continue on with her previous endeavor to grab the coffees when she heard the bells on the front door chime and looked over to see two men walking into the store.

"You like DOTS?" the little girl suddenly asked, drawing the detective's attention back towards her.

Taking a quick glance down at the box of candy in her hand, she replied, "Oh, uh, actually, these are for someone else."

"Oh, did they do their chores, too?"

Santana's brow knitted together in confusion, "What?"

"My mom gave me two whole dollars today because I did all my chores without being asked so now I get to buy some candy. Is that what happened to the person you're buying DOTS for?"

"Um, no, not quite," Detective Lopez answered, shifting her focus back over to the men. She didn't know what it was, but there was a certain feeling in her gut telling her that something was off. The men kept looking around and adjusting their open jackets. It wasn't until the third time one of the men went to pull the seams of the disconnected zipper together that she saw it.

A gleam of silver tucked away in the waistband of the man's pants.

* * *

><p>Detective Puckerman had just replaced the nozzle back into the gas tank when he suddenly heard several rounds of gunfire come from within the store. Quickly crouching down behind the car, the detective withdrew his gun and quickly radioed for back-up.<p>

After the first few shots, there was a long deafening silence.

Moving over towards the building, he carefully eased the door open and prepared to move inside, but before he could get it wide enough for him to move through, the store clerk and little girl squeezed out and went rushing past him.

Knowing that at least two bystanders were safe, he continued to push inside to assess the situation.

"Lopez? Lopez, are you okay?" Puck called out, noticing the two men with guns lying motionless on the ground. Pointing his firearm straight at one, he rushed to kick away the man's weapon and moved on to the other. Once the firearms were out of reach, he bent down and quickly felt for a pulse on each of the men.

Realizing that he still hadn't heard anything from his partner, he looked over to find her body lying on the floor surrounded by the contents of the shelving unit she had fallen into on her way down.

Feeling his eyes grow wide, the detective rushed over to the woman's side. Reaching for his radio once more, he yelled into the device, "Officer down! Repeat, officer down!"

"Puck, the perps," Santana suddenly mumbled out breathlessly in a daze.

Detective Puckerman snapped his eyes back down to look at the woman and just blankly stared at her for a brief moment while he processed what she was trying to say. "You don't have to worry about them. They're-" he began, taking a brief pause before answering, "They've already been taken care of."

Swallowing hard, she asked, "The clerk and little girl?"

"They're both safe outside. Neither of them seemed to be hurt. Just startled," he said as he placed the radio back in its holder. Noticing the wound on her left shoulder, he reached out and pressed a hand to it in an attempt to help stop the bleeding. As soon as he saw her cringe, he muttered a solemn, "Sorry."

"No, it's okay. I, uh, I managed to get one down, but I couldn't get the other before-" she tried to explain before the burning in her lungs caused her voice to trail off and she was forced to take a moment to regain her breath. As soon as she felt that she could speak again, she finished, "-the other was able to pull out his gun and shoot me."

"Where else did he get you?"

"Just shoulder and ribs," she forced out between slow gasping breaths of air as she glanced down at the hand that was pressing into the left side of her ribcage with all the strength she could muster.

"You're sure that's it, right? Nowhere else?" he said, looking around for signs of any other injuries.

"No, h-he only fired two shots off before I got him."

"Okay, good. I'm just, uh, I'm going to hold that spot for you so you don't have to worry about it. Just focus on keeping your eyes open, okay?" he asked, holding his hand slightly in the air as he waited for her consent.

As soon as she had given him a feeble nod, he replace her hand with his own, providing a better compression to her ribcage than she had been able to provide against the injury, but he was still not sure how much that would be able to help.

Suddenly feeling a chill overtake her body, she glanced around through lidded eyes and noticed everything starting to fade away. Shifting her eyes back over to her partner's as quickly as she could, she begged, "Tell her I'm sorry, Puck. You have to do this for me. Buy her a bunch of flowers and a mountain of DOTS and tell her that I am _so_ fucking sorry."

"No, there's no way I'm not going to do any of that. _You_ are. Now, just shut up and hold on. We have an ambulance on the way to come get you."

"Tell her I love her more than anything. Please. You have to make sure she knows that I love her," she shakily mumbled out as she continued to sink into the darkness, feeling thick tears streaking down the sides of her face.

Suddenly, the sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance as then made their way towards the little corner store.

"San, they're coming! They're almost here, so just hold on. Please," Detective Puckerman frantically plead.

She tried her best to follow through with his request, but just as she saw the emergency vehicle pull into the parking lot and the paramedics jump out to make their way over to her, her vision started to blur and the energy it took to keep her eyes open rapidly became too much for her body to handle.

And that's when everything went black.

* * *

><p><em>"I think I'm going to die," Santana's muffled voice announced as she pressed her face even further into the pillow it was buried in.<em>

_"You're not going to die, San. You're just a little drunk is all," the blonde chuckled as she reached over and ran a soothing hand through her friend's hair. "You're going to be just fine. You'll wake up tomorrow morning, and we're both going to laugh at how silly you're being right now."_

_The Latina rolled her head to the side so she could look up at the other girl, "This isn't funny, Britt."_

_Brittany bit her bottom lip as she fought back another laugh before saying, "You're right. I'm sorry, but you really are going to be just fine. Tonight will _not_ be the night you die, Santana Lopez."_

_"Promise?"_

_"I promise," the blonde answered as she slipped her pinkie finger around her friend's, giving it a gentle squeeze._

_That was the very first in a long line of pinky swears that the pair shared as young adults._

* * *

><p>Santana woke up, letting out quiet groan as she briefly forced her eyes to flutter open before allowing them to close once more. She didn't know where she was, how she got there, or if she was even still alive. All she knew was that she was somewhere with bright and white lights.<p>

"San?" a familiar voice suddenly called out of the fog.

"Britt?" Santana croaked out, feeling the dryness in her throat as she tried to squint open her eyes, but the lights were too bright, and she quickly shut them once more, feeling as if her whole head was throbbing.

"San, you're in the hospital. You're going to be alright," her wife quickly explained.

"Britt?" she repeated once more, making sure that the blonde was really there with her.

"Yeah, Baby, it's me. I'm right here," the brunette heard as a hand slipped its way into her own.

Feeling tears started to well up in her eyes, she started blurting out, "I'm sorry, Britt. I'm _so_ sorry. I should have stopped and told you I loved you before I walked out. I shouldn't have just left you like that. I'm such an asshole."

"San, please calm down. It's okay."

"No, it's not. I screwed up so bad this time, and I'm sorry. I love you so much."

"Babe, you know I love you, too. We can talk about everything else later, okay? Right now, I'm just focused on you getting better, which isn't going to happen unless you calm down and breathe for me," Brittany said, but when that didn't seem to work, she decided to change her tactics. "San. _San!_ Listen to me," she said as she shifted her hand to lace their little fingers together. After a brief moment of silence, Brittany's lips were suddenly right next to her wife's ear, quietly whispering, "I _promise_ everything is going to be alright, so please calm down."

Squeezing her eyelids even tighter together, Santana started focusing on slowing down her breathing.

"There you go, Babe. Just like that," Brittany cooed as she placed a gentle hand on the side of her wife's face and lightly traced the underside of the woman's eyes with her thumb, wiping away the remaining tears.

* * *

><p>Brittany awoke the next morning to the sounds of beeping machines and quickly realized that she had accidentally fallen asleep during the night. Picking her head up from where it had been resting atop her crossed arms, she looked to check on her wife and found her lying on her side, staring right back at her.<p>

"You shouldn't be laying like that, San. It's bad for you," the blonde chided with a look of disapproval, though she felt a little relieved to see the other woman looking better than she had the previous night.

"I could say the same to you, B," Santana challenged with a small grin.

"Yeah, but unlike you, I don't have a doctor advising me to remain lying on my back."

Her response only caused her wife's smile to transform into a devilish smirk, "Wanky."

"_Plus_," Brittany interjected, raising her voice slightly in an attempt to redirect her wife's train of thought, "sleeping like this was the best I could do given the circumstances."

"Well, my neck was starting to hurt from looking over at you all morning so lying like this was the best I could do given _my_ circumstances. Anyways, I'm sure your back is killing you from sitting like that all night so why don't you come up here and relax," Santana said as she gingerly rolled back to make room for the blonde.

"San, I don't think that's such a good idea."

"B, you're not going to hurt me. Now, come up here so we can get our cuddle on," she said as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, glad to be able to breathe a little more comfortably now that she was lying flat on her back once more.

"But San-"

"No buts. Just come here," Santana cut in without bothering to look at the blonde as she used her uninjured arm to pat the empty space beside her before returning it to where it had been resting on her stomach.

Heaving a sigh of defeat, Brittany stood up and slide under the blanket and sheet the brunette was holding up for her. Once she was in place, she eased herself to lay down along the brunette's side, carefully wrapping a protective arm across Santana's waist.

Taking a moment to take in her wife's warm scent, the blonde reflected over the emotional rollercoaster the previous hours had been for her. She had been absolutely terrified when she got the call telling her that Santana had been shot. She was afraid that she was never going to be able to hold her the way she currently was or enjoy the warmth radiating from her body. Most of all, she was afraid their argument was going to be the last memory she was ever going to have of them together, but she didn't dare speak any of that to Santana. She knew the other girl was already aware of how scary this all ways for her without verbally addressing it. Instead, she just curled herself a little further into her side, and whispered a simple but heartfelt, "I love you."

Carefully sliding her hand over to rest on top of the blonde's, Santana gently caressed the back of it with her thumb as she replied, "Me too, Britt. Always."

Suddenly, a round of loud knocking on the door broke the two out of their tender moment. Shifting her gaze over to the room's entrance, Santana called for the person to come inside and watched as Puck came walking in with a bouquet of flowers and a small plastic bag looped around his arm.

"Aw, look, San! He brought you some flowers."

"Actually, these are for you, as well as this," Puck said as he fished out a large box of DOTS from the bag.

"Why?"

"Because I told him to," Santana answered before shifting her eyes over to her partner. Giving him a meaningful look, she added, "Thanks, Puck."

"No problem, chica. You know I got your back," he replied with a wink before adding, "Speaking of which, these are for you." Reaching into the bag once more, the detective pulled out a big bag of sour gummy worms and quickly opened it before handing it over to his partner.

"Hell freaking yes! You're the best, Puckerman!" she replied excitedly as she placed candies against her free side and grabbed a few to toss in her mouth.

"Yeah, well, I try," he joked before looking at her with a concerned expression that asked if she was doing okay.

Santana had just finished giving him a slight nod when Brittany drew them out of their silent conversation to ask, "Hey, San, would you like one?" Glancing over to the blonde, she saw that she had already opened the box and was in the process of popping one into her mouth.

"No, that's okay, B. Those are supposed to be for you."

"I know, but what's mine is yours, right?" Brittany replied as she flashed a smile.

"Well, I guess you do have a point there? Mind if I have a red one?"

"Only if I can have a green and orange worm."

"Deal."

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note:<em>

_Hi, everyone!_

_Thank you for taking the time to read this one-shot, which was somewhat inspired by the song "Meantime" by Givers. I started it a while back but decided to go ahead and finish it today in hopes that it will help get the writing juices flowing so I can finally finish up Chapter 3 of No Questions Asked, which should hopefully be posted sometime within the couple of weeks._

_Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this little fic and that you have a very lovely Sunday._


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